jimt1234

Is it just me or is this thing just a poor man's version of GitHub?

Conspiracy theory: Cops are worried about essentially being replaced by Flock cameras (if Flock cameras do, in fact, reduce crime rates, it's only a matter of time before the city council starts looking for ways to reduce the budget, and the police is often the biggest spend for cities), so they intentionally report slightly inflated crime rate data to remind the public: "See? Y'all still need us!"

What's the point of "state of the art healthcare" if it's only for rich people? If Jeff Bezos and I get the exact same health issue - say, some form of cancer, we're going to have radically different treatments and mostly likely outcomes. His will be "state of the art", mine will (hopefully) be good, but definitely not be like his.

That's basically my concern, too. If we had a "Medicare for all" system, would it end up like Social Security, a system that started out with great intentions, but has since ballooned into an expensive, bureaucratic nightmare?

My favorite part of the ACA is that the nickname, Obamacare, was created by Republicans, thinking it would fail and the nickname would make that failure stick to Obama better. Problem was, the ACA helped a lot of people, particularly people in red areas. So, then Republicans started complaining that Obama and the Democrats were being arrogant for putting Obama's name on the ACA.

Zuck pushed propaganda for Fauci during COVID, so it's okay. </maga>

That's what Trump told everyone during the campaign. Then, after he got elected, well, he changed his mind, I guess.

> Baseball has been a game of moral fiber, respectable players, and good clean fun.

I've been a baseball fan for years, and I've always hated that attitude. Bob Costas and other purists always talk about the "sanctity of the game" - it's a bunch of BS. First of all the game was never the "pure" or "holy" activity that people make it out to be. The history of the game is full of racism, sexism, drugs, womanizing, greed and so on. Not trying to be a hater, just telling facts. The game's purists like to look at history with rose colored glasses.

And as far as the fans, I wish the fans would be more passionate about the game. I've been to games in other countries - Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, and it's awesome. I'd rather have rowdy fans than people falling asleep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FDrcWTSczs . I mean, come on, that's a Yankees/Red Sox game, one of the biggest rivalries in sports, and the dude is asleep?! No thanks. Give me the screamers and the drunks.

I fully support blaming Orange Foolius for, well, everything. But hasn't every administration since Reagan contributed to this?

We used to do quick tests of PC builds with GORILLA.BAS. It was later replaced by the 'Doom test'.

For me it was the Commodore 64 from a few years later (1982, I think?) - that's what got me into computers. Back then, to me and my nerdy friends, the C64 felt sorta like a 'rebel computer'; we weren't doing Lotus 1-2-3 or anything practical at all. We were just tinkering, mostly war dialing and pirating games. The C64 was cheap enough that broke-ass kids like me could afford to do the same shit the Apple II and TRS-80s were doing.

It's been said that when Microsoft started to grow - say, in the mid-80s, Bill Gates' biggest fear was that it would turn into IBM.

Why should I change? He's the one who sucks.

LOL

> ... strong handshake ...

Years ago I had an important job interview. Unfortunately, 2 days prior I broke a bone in my right hand during a bicycle wreck. I didn't wanna show up to the interview with a cast on my hand/arm ("this guy is reckless."), so I cut it off. I interviewed with about 10 dudes that day, and they all wanted to give me a "strong handshake". It hurt like hell, but I had to maintain composure. I got the job. And I've been here for almost 25 years. :)

President Clinton tried to improve government contracting through various legislation and executive orders. One of the first things President W Bush did when he got into office was to sign an executive order that effectively negated most of the changes, particularly the one regarding "black listing" contractors who have a history of ripping off the government. The administration's response: the "black listed" contractors have improved; they promise not to rip off the government anymore. Then the Iraq War started and government contractors made billions with basically no oversight. And we all know how that went.

That's my hunch as to what's driving this. Some suit at Mars calculated that shrinking the size of a bar will compel enough consumers to purchase an additional bar, thus selling 2 bars instead of one, essentially doubling the revenue from many customers. The suit probably got a huge promotion/bonus for this incredible work, benefiting all of humanity. /s

Agreed. I remember those ads, and I kinda liked them. They had personality. The other PC ads were just tech specs - boring.

For me it's not just AI. The industry just doesn't feel the same anymore. Maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon - I've been in this industry since the 80s, but things really seemed to change, or I finally noticed it, around 2010 or so. It seemed like everything we were building wasn't to help people, it was to extract data from people and generally just harass people into buying shit.

We transformed society through email, the web, mobile, and so on. But now we're recording everything your car does and delivering ads on refrigerators. It just doesn't feel the same anymore.

IANAL but the probable cause here (traveling across state lines) seems really weak. There's a million legitimate/legal reasons for someone to travel across state lines. That's the issue that jumps out at me here.

Cops have used the "odor of marijuana" for years as probable cause to search vehicles. AFAIK the courts have generally supported it.

And useless, prolonged wars are good for business.

Browsers should not have access to the clipboard.

Thank goodness the energy policy of the US is being dictated by a single, highly intelligent man that isn't falling for the clean energy hoax, a man who consistently puts the interests of the people over his own interests. It's sad that the rest of the world is falling for this scam. </sarcasm; gosh, i hope it was obvious>

Serial killers? Boring. If someone comes up with credible evidence that environmental pollution causes people to be trans, then we'll see some actual environmental protection. ... Sad, dude.

I watched a series on Netflix recently: "Homicide Squad: New Orleans". The series was basically an infomercial for video surveillance cameras and license plate readers. It felt like all the detectives did was watch video and monitor LPR data all day. Every single homicide was solved like this - video surveillance and LPR data.

I'm not sure how accurate that show is, but the use of video surveillance and LPR data to solve crimes certainly seemed plausible. And it made me realize, unfortunately, these Flock cameras aren't going anywhere. People want crimes to get solved, especially homicides.

https://www.netflix.com/title/82158926

We used to take a half-full can of gas, then get a ping pong ball, drill a hole in it, fill it with bleach, then put tape over the hole. Drop the ping pong ball in the gas can, screw the lid on really tight, then wait. It used to take about 10 minutes for the gas to eat its way into the ping pong ball, but when it did, and the bleach mixed with the gas... boom! The scary part is only worked, maybe, half the time. So there would be cans of gas/bleach just sitting in a field, waiting to explode or release really harmful chems into the air. We were kids, young and stupid.

The author is really romanticizing here. In 1982, video rental stores were either seedy, dedicated to porn rentals. Or, they were tucked into the back of a record store. Video cassettes were brand new in 1982; no one knew what to make of it. Heck, the industry couldn't even decide on a format (we had Betamax in my house because Mom was convinced it was the future). In fact, in those early days, I recall people were focused more on recording ("I can record my shows and watch them when it's convenient for me!" was a revolutionary concept at the time.) than renting. Once the rental market became a thing, a few local chains popped up. Then the rental market exploded and Blockbuster basically took over the world. They destroyed the local chains. They also sucked the life out of video rental - long lines, poor selection, annoying fees, unknowledgable staff, etc. I really think people are using "rose colored glasses" when they recall the Blockbuster days; it was definitely not all good.

The only experience I can recall that matches the article is after Blockbuster took over the video rental world, there were a few local rental places that focused on the love of movies, with a diverse selection and knowledgable staff. These places probably paid the rent with porn rentals, usually in an adjoining room, but the love of movies was always palpable. It was a lot like the article describes. I remember going to one in the early-2000s and renting the original Frankenstein movie (the one with Boris Karloff), something Blockbuster would never stock, much less have staff that even knew there was an original movie. And, yeah, I remember talking to the clerk about it; he ran down the list of all the Frankenstein spin-off movies.

> Gasoline ... it's not a "bomb"

My teen years would beg to differ, when some neighborhood friends and I decided to experiment with gas and bleach. The neighborhood residents, fire department and local police also had an opinion, too. (We all got into BIG trouble. Definitely one of the dumber things I did as a teen.)

It's difficult to enjoy the ride with motion sickness. So yes, it does sound crazy, most likely written by someone who isn't affected by motion sickness.